The Canadian-French element in our
national commonwealth is descended from French ancestry and has been a factor
for good in our population, although it perhaps has not been so much in
evidence as some other elements.The
reason of this is probably in the fact that the people of this blood are not
ambitious for publicity, but are lovers of home and have therefore not
emigrated to all parts of the country as rapidly as other peoples that could be
mentioned; yet they are found on the Pacific coast, and in Tuolumne County the
French Canadian citizenship is worthily represented by the family of Lefevre,
of which James Lefevre, a prominent resident of Quartz, is a well known member.

James Lefevre, who has ably filled
the office of justice of the peace at Quartz and is at this writing a prominent
Republican candidate for the office of county supervisor of Tuolumne County, is
a son of Abraham and Mary Louise (Qunel) Lefevre, both of whom were born of French ancestry in
Canada, where their forefathers were early settlers.Abraham Lefevre, who was a native of
Montreal, born October 17, 1815, in the course of events settled in Missouri,
and there his son James was born, April 19, 1852. In 1856, when the subject of this sketch was
four years old, his father came with his family to California and located at
Sevens Bar, Tuolumne County, where he mined and conducted a hotel until 1866.In the year mentioned he removed to Quartz Mountain,
where he resumed hotel-keeping and took up quartz-mining, and remained until
his death which occurred July 24, 1884, when he was sixty-nine years old.His wife survived him until June 18, 1899,
when she died at the age of seventy-eight years.He was a pushing, industrious, thoroughly
reliable businessman of much private enterprise and public spirit.James Lefevre is his only child.

Mr. Lefevre was educated in Tuolumne
County, inherited the family homestead and was in the liquor and hotel business
until 1897, and was associated meanwhile with various mining enterprises.He sold his interest in the Clark mine for
five thousand dollars and now has an interest in the Lava Hill mine, which is
being operated with success.He is a
businessman of ability and his interest in county affairs has led him into
public life.He has always voted the
Republican ticket and worked for the success of Republican principles.He was elected a justice of the peace in 1898
and has filled that office with so much fidelity and good judgment that the
decisions he has rendered have given general satisfaction, and not one of them
has been reversed by a higher court.In
the fall of 1900 he was nominated by his party for the office of supervisor of
the fifth district of Tuolumne County, but was defeated.He is not a member of any secret society, is
quiet and unassuming and has never made any special effort to gain public
favor.His hospitable home is one of the
landmarks of the town and he and his family are widely known and highly respected.

In 1874 Mr. Lefevre married Miss
Helen Sweet, who was born in Illinois in 1854, and came with her parents to
California in 1856.They have three
children:Mabel, who married G. H.
Cornell; James Edward and Ruby.